The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-26
sPAshODICS IN RELIGION.

sPAsMODICs IN RELIGION.
There arr some minds SO peculiarly
constituted that they are either on the
height of enthusiasm or deep in the val
ley Of humillty and abasement. There
seems to be no even temper to such
lives they are either aglow with heat
or shaking with cold. There are, how
ever, aside from this constitutional pc
culiarity, many very respectable people
who have quality Of character built
up by class of motives which can
never give steadfastness or stability.
There are two great classes Of motives
that move men, subject to infinite de-
tail in each class. The one is embraced
in the hopes of men, the other in their
fears. We are often told with great
emphasis that fear is just as legitimate
as hope. If it be meant that there are
things to be feared, and that man is so
constituted that when he sees them he
naturally fears them, it is quite true;
but if it be meant that fear as motive
to high attainment Of character is as
legitimate as hope, it is a proposition
that indicates very slight attainment
either in ethics or in spiritual things.
Fears-so far, at least, as this world
is concerned-spring from transient
causes. They cannot operate steadily;
they are not steadily present they can
bring no permanent, legitimate fruit
age, and when we attempt to arouse the
fears of men by affirmations touching
another world, the grounds of such af-
firmation, whether true and permanent
or not, are so far removed from men
that they cannot be made to operate
permanently. They never have and
never will. 1t is too long range. Mo-
tives springing, therefore, from fear
are, in the nature of the case, transient.
Motives springing out of the hopes of
men, which hopes are based on the eter-
nal reality Of things, are, in their nat
ure, permanent, continuously operative,
ever at hand, fitted to the work they are
expected to perform. If it were posi-
BILE for the human mind to be oppressed
perpetually by the hazards which the
church has so Infinitely employed in
centuries, either one of two things
would happen, the attention would
cease, or the human mind would break
down under the pressure. 1t is impos-
sible to maintain any given portion of
the waters of the ocean at level pos
itively higher than the general level.
There is general level in every human
life. That level is modified by the
qualities that build up the heart and the
character, and that general level may
be maintained by the motives which
spring out of the existing realities of
life. A man is counselled by the doc
tors of divinity to see to it that he
makes deep and abiding work of
grace. There is no work of grace in it.
It is the fright that threatened hell
gives a man. lie cannot remain per-
manently in fright there comes a
calm, and there is such wonderful diff
ference between the fright and the calm
that the man verify thinks he is born
again, and so he is taken into the church;
the activity, the enthusiasm presently
subside; the cause that produced the
effect passes away; the sunshine and
the flowers obliterate it, and he falls
back into his condition of moral cold
ness. To lift him to something higher
and better, to regenerate that man,
open the doors of heaven to his view.
Follow the Masters rule. He comes
revealing universal Father. 1t is not
an empty name, but it is full of life
giving power. On the one hand, there
fore, you have spasmodic attendance
upon Christian worship and observ-
ances, spasmodic endeavors in the lines
of self-sacrifice, spasmodic manifesto
lions of nobility of character and life.
On the other hand, you have what does
not strike you so much-an evenness,
and an integrity, and a sweetness of
charity, and openhandedness, which as
you view it by and by seems to you
quite surprising.-Rev. A. Il. Miner,
d. ID.